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Discourse and Human Rights Violations (Benjamins Current Topics) Discourse and Human Rights Violations Bernard J. Baars Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA Thomas C. Dalton California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, CA Benjamins Current Topics Special issues of established journals tend to circulate within the orbit of the subscribers of those journals. For the Benjamins Current Topics series a number of special issues have been selected containing salient topics of research with the aim to widen the readership and to give this interesting material an additional lease of life in book format. Volume 5 Discourse and Human Rights Violations Edited by Christine Anthonissen and Jan Blommaert These materials were previously published in Journal of Language and Politics 5:1 (2006) Discourse and Human Rights Violations Edited by Christine Anthonissen University of Stellenbosch Jan Blommaert LSE John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of 8 American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Discourse and human rights violations / edited by Christine Anthonissen and Jan Blommaert. p. cm. -- (Benjamins Current topics ; issn 1874-0081 ; v. 5) Includes bibliographical references. 1. South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 2. Reconciliation--Political aspects--South Africa. 3. Apartheid--South Africa. 4. Apartheid in literature. 5. Human rights--South Africa. 6. Discourse analysis--South Africa. 7. War crimes--Austria--Public opinion. 8. Discourse analysis--Austria. I. Anthonissen, Christine. II. Blommaert, Jan. DT1974.2.D57 2007 968.06--dc22 2007005496 ISBN 978-90-272-2235-0 (hb : alk. paper) © 2007 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa Table of contents About the Authors vii Introduction 1 Christine Anthonissen The debate on truth and reconciliation: A survey of literature on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission 13 Annelies Verdoolaege Narrative inequality in the TRC hearings: On the hearability of hidden transcripts 33 Jan Blommaert, Mary Bock and Kay McCormick Critical Discourse Analysis as an analytic tool in considering selected, prominent features of TRC testimonies 65 Christine Anthonissen South African Novelists and the Grand Narrative of Apartheid 89 Annie Gagiano Linguistic Bearings and Testimonial Practices 101 Fiona Ross History in the making/The making of history: The ‘German Wehrmacht’ in collective and individual memories in Austria 115 Ruth Wodak About the Authors Annelies Verdoolaege has been a researcher at Ghent University since October 2001, working towards a PhD on linguistic aspects of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She has a Masters degree in English and Dutch linguistics as well as a Masters degree in African Languages and Cultures from Gh- ent University, Belgium. She also obtained a Masters in African Studies at SUNY Albany, NY. In the course of her studies she participated in a number of academic exchange programs, studied in Cape Town for one semester and in Albany, NY for one year. Authors’ address: Department of African Languages and Cultures · Ghent University · Rozier 44 · 9000 Gent · Belgium E-mail: [email protected] Jan Blommaert is professor and Chair of Languages in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, and part-time professor of African linguistics and sociolinguistics at Ghent University. Currently he is coordinator of various research projects aimed at deepening theoretical and empirical understandings of language in social life, focused on inequality and on a materialistic view of lan- guage as a resource in people’s lives. His research projects are connected through an enduring interest in code-switching and mixing, in narrative, in linguistic as- pects of popular culture in Africa, in language planning and language politics in Africa and recently also in the relation between space (neighborhoods, cities) and ideologies in the field of migration. Authors’ address: Institute of Education · University of London · 20 Bedford Way · London WC1H 0AL · UK E-mail: [email protected] Mary Bock is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of English at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include the eighteenth century English novel, stylistics and narrative both oral and written. Authors’ address: University of Cape Town · Department of English Language and Literature E-mail: [email protected] viii About the Authors Kay McCormick is professor in the Department of English at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include language contact phenomena in bilin- gual speech communities, new Englishes, and oral narratives. Authors’ address: University of Cape Town · Department of English Language and Literature E-mail: [email protected] Christine Anthonissen is the Chairperson of the Department of General Linguis- tics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguis- tics from the University of Vienna. Formerly she was based at the University of the Western Cape where she taught Linguistics and did research for more than 10 years. Her research interests are focused in the areas of Critical Linguistics/Critical Discourse Analysis, Bi-/multilingualism in society and education, and Discourse in Intercultural Communication. Authors’ address: University of Stellenbosch · Department of General Linguistics · Room 516, Arts Building · Private Bag X1 · Matieland 7602 · South Africa E-mail: [email protected] Annie Gagiano is a Professor in the Department of English of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. She has specialised in the study of African English fiction, is the author of numerous articles in this field, and of the study Achebe, Head, Marechera: On Power and Change in Africa. Her other academic interests range from Shakespearean studies and twentieth century English poetry to South African folktales (from various cultures). Authors’ address: Department of English · Stellenbosch University · Private Bag X1 · 7602 Matieland · South Africa E-mail: [email protected] Fiona C. Ross lectures in Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. Her book Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa has recently been published by Pluto Press, London. Authors’ address: University of Cape Town · Department of Social Anthropology E-mail: [email protected] Ruth Wodak is Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University. Besides various other prizes, she was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize for Elite Researchers in 1996 and is also head of the Wittgenstein Research Center “Discourse, Politics, Identity” at the University of Vienna. Her research interests focus on discourse analysis; gender studies; language and/in politics; prejudice and discrimination; and on ethnographic methods of linguistic field work. She is member of the edito- rial board of a range of linguistic journals and co-editor of the journals Discourse About the Authors ix & Society, Critical Discourse Studies, and Language and Politics. She has held visit- ing professorships in Uppsala, Stanford University, University Minnesota, Univer- sity of East Anglia and Georgetown University. See http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/ staff/wodak/index.htm and http://www.univie.ac.at/discourse-politics-identity for more information on on-going research projects and recent publications. Authors’ address: Department of Linguistics and English Language · Lancaster University · LA1 4YT · United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] The language of remembering and forgetting Christine Anthonissen Introduction Interest in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established before and has lasted considerably longer than the couple of years in which the Commission’s hearings took place.1 Academics, politicians, religious communities and ordinary lay members of society have shown interest from a variety of perspectives, such as those of people themselves affected by histories of human rights violations (cf. Jaffer 1997; Cherry 2000; Sachs 2000),2 those of people interested in how communities move from violent conflict between war- ring groups to reconciliation (cf. Villa-Vicencio 1996; Swartz 2000; Wilson 2000), or those of people interested in how individuals move from experiences of trauma, suffering and loss to some form of closure, to a restored sense of value and mean- ing (cf. Winslow 1997; Govender 1998; Lyster 2000; Foster 2000).3 Such interest may centre around, but is not limited to, tracing and recording the political uses of a TRC in processes of transformation from authoritarian, totalitarian govern- ment to inclusive democracy, or in coming to terms with abuses of a violent past in order to establish credible and enduring national unity. A workshop on The Language of Remembering and Forgetting held in August 2001 at the University of the Western Cape recognised the interest of Linguistics and Literature (e.g. Heyns 2000), Media Studies (e.g. Jaffer 1997; Green 1998; Bird and Garda 1998; Thloloe 1998), Social Anthropology and Psychology (e.g. Robins 1998; Wilson 2000; Swartz 2000), Political
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